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In this exercise, you will examine the location and patterns of plate boundaries, earthquakes, and volcanoes for the world. You will add the continents, plate boundaries, earthquakes, and volcanoes to a view. You will also change the symbols representing these features.
| Step 1 | Start ArcView and start a project
Open ArcView GIS by accessing:
Choose the project that you have been working
on:
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| Step 2 | Add a View to the project
Add a view by clicking on the Views icon |
| Step 3 | Rename the View
Choose Properties from the View pulldown
menu, and rename the view to "Plate Boundaries, Earthquakes and Volcanoes".
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| Step 4 | Set the Working Directory
In this activity, you will be creating new files. You will want to save your work to a directory on your hard drive. To change the default directory, click
File and choose Set Working Directory from the pulldown menu. Type the
path to the directory where you will save your work.
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| Step 5 | Save the project
Make the project (currently Untitled) window
active.
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| Step 6 | Add Continents, Plate Boundaries, Earthquakes
and Volcanoes to the view
Click the Add Theme Click the Add Theme plates.shp file = plate boundaries for
the world.
Click on plates.shp and hold down the Apple or Star key and click on the continent.shp to add these themes to the view. |
| Step 7 | Rename the themes
The earthquakes.shp, continent.shp, and
plates.shp themes appear in the view's table of contents. Make the earthquakes.shp
theme active by clicking on its name (i.e., its name appears raised).
Follow the same procedure to rename the
volcanoes.shp theme to Volcanoes.
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| Step 8 | Make the Continents fill pattern transparent
To make the continents shape transparent,
double-click on the theme's name to bring up the Legend Editor.
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| Step 9 | Change the size and color of symbol for
the Earthquakes theme
Double-click on the Earthquakes theme and
click on the thumbtack icon to bring up the Marker Palette |
| Step 10 | Change the size, color and type of symbol
for the Volcanoes theme
Double-click on the Volcanoes theme and
click on the thumbtack icon to bring up the Marker Palette |
| Step 11 | Change the size and color of symbol for
the Plate Boundaries theme
Double-click on the Plate Boundaries theme
and click on the pencil icon to bring up the Pen Palette |
| Step 12 | Arrange the Themes in the View window
Arrange the themes in your view window
in the following order:
You can change the order of the themes by dragging a theme. This is accomplished by clicking on the theme and holding down the mouse and dragging the box that appears until the theme is in the proper order. |
| Step 13 | Display the Themes in the View
Click on the raised box to the left of the Theme names to make a check mark and see the coverages displayed in the View window. You may want to turn the volcanoes theme off to view the earthquakes and then turn the earthquakes theme off to view the volcanoes. You may need to maximize or resize the ArcView window and the View window to see the entire view. |
| Step 14 | Query a Particular Point in the View
Make the Earthquakes theme active by clicking
on its name. Click on the Information button |
| Step 15 | Open the theme table and sort on a particular
field
Make the Earthquakes theme active by clicking
on its name.
Click on one of the fields in the first
record or line of data. The corresponding point should be highlighted in
yellow in the view window. To highlight several earthquakes, hold down
the Apple or Star key and select all the records with magnitudes of 8.7
to 8.9.
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| Step 16 | Save the project again
Make the project YourTeamName.apr window
active.
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Note: You may want to turn the volcanoes
theme off to view the earthquakes. Then turn the volcanoes theme on and
turn the earthquakes theme off to view the volcanoes.
| Question 1 | Where are the majority of the earthquakes
in the world located in relationship to the plate boundaries? Why?
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| Question 2 | Where are most of the earthquakes in Africa
located in relationship to the plate boundaries?
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| Question 3 | A rift zone is where a continent is believed
to be spreading apart, but not on a plate boundary. A rift zone causes
magma to rise to the surface and erupt in a line of volcanoes. Based
on this information, in what African countries is the rift zone located?
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| Question 4 | Compare the location of the plate boundaries
and earthquakes along the coast of Africa and along the coasts of North
and South America. Do you think this affects the risk from earthquakes
to people in North and South America compared with Africa? Why?
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| Question 5 | Using the procedures explained in Step
14, determine when (Year) and where (Country) the largest magnitude earthquake
occurred?
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| Question 6 | Where are the majority of the volcanoes
in the world located in relationship to the plate boundaries?
Why?
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| Question 7 | Using the procedures explained in Step
14, determine which volcano is the highest in Africa (has the largest Elevation).
Hint: Sort one of the fields in the Volcanoes Theme Table in descending
order.
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| Think About | Notice the location of volcanoes in Africa in relationship to the plate boundaries. |
Back
to Africa Lesson Index
U.S. Department of
the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey
Rocky Mountain Mapping Center
URL:http://rockyweb.cr.usgs.gov/outreach/africa/act4.html
Last modified: 1 September 2004